Embers
by 2theSky
Summary: "And though the embers are new, whatever you do- just don't let the fire die..." -Owl City "Embers" (Embers series- Book Four)
1. Chapter 1

(?'s POV)

I smiled. This was better than what Flynn had created.

Far better.

Though most of it we had yet to make sense of, this was a place without a tyrant over us… wait, we hadn't exactly called CLU a tyrant… but the name might not be so nice to repeat.

And besides, why remember him? He wasn't here. There was peace.

Serenity.

Calm.

And more peace. (Yeah, I'm repeating, but this was all so much of a shock for those of us left.)

I looked around at the other 156 programs left; we were the few left after… well, what had happened? There was a big flash, and everything was gone. And then we disappeared as well, like a eternal sleep mode-

that had managed to get interrupted.

Now the Grid… it was different. It was better. We could live without the fear of a disc slicing through our gut for just walking down the street. There was no CLU.

And no more Rinzler.

Rinzler… I turned around from the edge of the cliff by the bridge, the formerly vacant ground covered in trees and bushes that were not here before… anywhere. I saw the other programs, many of them, just talking. And smiling. A lot. Smiling because there was no need to conform to a skewed view of perfection. I saw one with blue hair, Mara. And her friend Zed. They were laughing about something as they walked to the one house were they probably lived; those of us left lived happily with groups of our friends. Except for that one house up above us, high on the cliffs. It was rumored that Rinzler lived there.

And the Renegade as well.

Wait- no. His name was Beck. And we hadn't really discussed him. One program who I'd seen die when everything in Argon fell flat, Bodhi, had had many questions about the Renegade, mainly because the poor program had been derezzed.

And now he was alive…

Who had saved us?

Someone had to have helped us. And the creator was gone- well, Flynn was. We'd heard of another Creator, but I hadn't seen him. Maybe those glowing programs- the ones who visited once in a while- maybe they'd tell us more. They were nice; they always appeared in a blinding flash on the other side of the bridge, where we went to work. The side I was on now was where we all lived. Those glowing programs were kind and different. One was very short; her hair was yellow, they silver at the bottom, and had one orange stripe and one blue one. Now that orange had no evil definition, seeing her was no problem. Her brown eyes were soft and inviting. And her friend had blue hair, that was every shade of blue possible, and had glowing green eyes.

Who were they?

Their names…

I'd never heard their names…

It was rumored that they'd saved us. But I couldn't understand how.

How could two programs possibly be enough to save us? Maybe that Creator of theirs… Maybe I just needed to know far more. My information was minimal on the subject.

I needed to know more.

And that bridge…

I smirked, realizing my answers would come from there…

…

"I wish Beck were here."

"I know. But he was the Renegade, remember?"

I jumped as a conversation sparked within the group of mechanics at the club, the newer music from those two glowing programs blasting loud and clear, sounding wonderful. Beck… yeah, I remembered him… kinda. I slipped into the booth behind them, my half-empty glass of energy sparkling in the flashing lights of the walls. The booths had soft cushiony things; they were far more comfortable than ever before. I settled in to listen.

"I can't believe we didn't see it," Mara muttered. "It was obvious."

Zed chimed in with, "I had all his shifts! How come I didn't notice?!"

"He was always gone…" I think the program named Dash sighed as he finished. "And we always talked about the Renegade like he was filth whenever Beck was around."

"I know," Zed growled. he sounded regretful. "Able, did you notice it?"

Able… their boss. He was here?! Oh, this could be good; if this Beck guy was never at work, he had to know something. "That he was never at work? I had to make the schedules! And you all lived there!" Able exclaimed, his voice hinting that he knew far more on the subject than he cared to admit, maybe for this Beck's safety.

"But did you know?" Mara pressed him.

The rest of the mechanics were silent as they refilled their glasses with energy from the taps at the tables, everything at the club now working on automatic, no employees needed, except a couple janitors. I happened to be one of the them, and it was a pretty decent job.

Able sighed. "That he wasn't at work? Of course I knew that!"

"But-"

"What Beck did was his own affair, not mine," Able stopped further questions. "He was the Renegade, end of story."

Mara sounded a little sad as she asked, "But why won't he come around us? He's still alive… right?"

Able didn't answer. The group of remaining mechanics, just around twenty of them were quiet, waiting for an answer.

Able didn't answer except to say, "He might not want to come around after having everything he did to help being criticized by those he was fighting for."

And Bodhi… I heard him as he spoke up. "So wait… you guys were UPSET that someone was trying to fight for freedom?!"

Dash hissed through his teeth; I dared to look over my shoulder as he snapped, "Well, he wasn't quite clear about his intentions."

"Gee, 'Tron Lives' seems kinda self-explanatory," Zed remarked, the majority of his co-workers murmuring in agreement.

I turned around and shrugged. This Beck character was probably scared to be further rebuked by his friends. I couldn't blame him; they seemed nice, but they did seem a little ticked by some of the stuff he'd pulled to help them.

But he seemed like he'd done the right thing…

I stood up, sneaking away from the music and groups of friends as I remembered I had something I wanted to check out. Those two glowing programs…

…

"Whoa…" I stared in awe at the side of the one building, wondering if others had noticed this little- no, more than little- set-up.

Screens, buttons, keypads- what was this? I waved my hand over the one screen, seeing it light up under my touch. It flashed, then a video started to play.

Oh, great, had to be curious…

* * *

**"Tron?"**

**A figure all in black with a few flickering blue lights growled. Or purred. Or did a mix of the two. "Why- Why are y-you here?" he asked, nervous.**

**I recognized one of the glowing programs standing there, not glowing, and not in her white-blue glowing dress that she wore now. Instead, she had a suit with deep streaks of light in select areas. I recognized Able and Paige behind here; Paige was now one of the medics we had, one of the main ones. (They weren't needed for much, mainly because our coding had been enhanced to make derezzing much, much harder.) And then… he looked like Tron, only in a robe… an almost identical copy of Tron was behind them. And there was a guy with them… was he Beck? I wasn't sure.**

**"Mac!" The glowing program dropped to her knees beside a huddled program, her eyes filled with tears as she gently shook him. He just groaned, "… Skigh… sorry…" and passed out. So now I knew her name, one glowing program's name.**

**And the program on the ground… he was the other glowing one! His suit didn't glow like it did now. In fact, the circuits were practically nonexistent as he moaned in pain in his unconscious state. He looked bad.**

**Paige rushed too his side, as did Able. The copy of Tron and Beck stood side by side, just watching as Rinzler, his lights strangely no longer orange, growled again. The copy stepped forward. "Does that helmet come off, Tron?"**

**"I… am… n-not…" He stopped and sighed, swaying on his feet. Something was wrong; probably not enough energy for his thoughts to function properly. The copy Tron lowered him to the ground gently and felt along the helmet. "Skigh? Little help?"**

**Skigh just tapped her hand, the screen that glowed fiercely now only dimly lit as she seemed to be pouring her special ability (whichever one at the time) into the two programs that now laid on the ground. Rinzler's helmet retracted, revealing a scared face marred with horrific scars that were slowly fading with Skigh's power. (I'd overheard her once comparing it to the Force…whatever that was.) She only turned her full focus back to Mac as soon as Rinzler seemed stable, his scars gone. He was shaking in fear, his copy kneeling beside him, the program I thought was Beck kneeling at his other side-**

* * *

I stopped the video and sped ahead, wanting to see more than just that. The whole history of the Grid seemed to be in these archives, in the side of the biggest building here, with the-

wait…I glanced overhead, seeing the same "T" from on Rinzler's suit-

that was TRON's symbol! Not Rinzler's! I smacked my forehead. How could I have missed that?!

So Tron… wait, already went over that.

I stopped skimming through the video and tapped the screen, watching the video resume.

* * *

**"Is there any way to stop it?"**

**Skigh and Mac looked at each other, Mac now on his feet from something I'd fast-forwarded past. He still looked a little out of it. "No," the Tron copy guy said, looking sad. He wore some sort of things over his eyes, and I didn't quite understand them. Lenses? A DJ's gear? What were they? "I think Sam cut the power to this place. Not intentionally, I mean. He's not like that."**

**Skigh sighed. "So, there's nothing we can do?"**

**"Nothing I can think of," Alan said, sighing. He glanced at Paige and Beck, who were on the ground, trying to make sure Tron was stable. His circuits weren't the orange from Rinzler anymore. They were a soft blue-white. His eyes suddenly widened. "Unless…"**

**Skigh froze. "Oh, yeah, sure, we've totally thought of that kind of testing!" she commented sarcastically. "I don't know if that's even remotely possible, Alan!"**

**The Alan program-guy shrugged, looking really tired. "That's probably our only option-"**

**"Am I missing something?" Able asked, looking nervous and hopeful.**

**Skigh shrugged. "I'm not saying I don't want to. I'm just saying that this could blow up in our faces if something happens to go wrong!"**

**"I know, " Alan said, nodding, then adding, "and that's a good thing to be cautious."**

**More of the Grid cracked; I winced at the sound. "But not too cautious," Beck spoke up, watching as Tron groaned. Tron looked very weak, like a program ready to derezz.**

**Skigh nodded. "I know…" she frowned. "McKian? You okay?"**

**McKian, one of the glowing ones, sighed, looking sad and scared to death. "I-I'm sorry…"**

**"For what?" Skigh sounded shocked. What had happened? I watched carefully and noticed dark spots and bits of cracked skin where code peeked through all over his body. "You didn't do anything wrong," she said, trying to reassure as she gently grabbed his hand, McKian flinching at the touch and looking away.**

**"Yes I-I did… Al-Alex found o-out…" he shook and started crying, falling towards Skigh, who held him close. "I'm sorry," he whispered.**

**Alan stepped up, patting McKian's back. "You did nothing wrong, Mac. Nothing!"**

**"I hurt McKenzie," Mac said almost too quietly to hear. "I hurt her."**

**"No, no you didn't!" Alan smiled at him as Mac looked up, confused. "You healed her! She's fine!"**

**Mac looked around dazedly, mumbling, "She's fine?"**

**"Yes," Skigh answered, laughing in an attempt to calm him. "She's just fine-"**

* * *

I hit the fast forward button again, speeding past some of the conversation; that part had made next to no sense, and my memory didn't hold any information on it either.

I pressed play, hoping for more answers on the glowing ones.

* * *

**"So…"**

**Skigh, Mac, and their friends jumped. The voice, the sudden booming voice, wasn't from any of them. Even Tron tried to stand up, but was too weak.**

**"…You understand your purpose now?"**

**Skigh's eyes widened. "Uh… w-who are you?" she asked, looking like she was in awe, not scared.**

**"I believe… you already know the answer to that."**

**McKian's eyes widened also; his, though, looked ready to derezz from his head. "Are you-"**

**"No, I'm not," the voice responded to the unfinished question, somewhat laughing. "I'm a close link though." It was a male voice, but a very soothing one at that.**

**"I don't believe this…" Alan stared around in shock, kneeling beside Tron to help him sit up better.**

**"Well, I'm quite real."**

**Beck smirked slightly. "Though not visible," he mumbled somewhat nervously as though it was an attempt to calm down.**

**The voice laughed softly. "Sorry, me being visible is not part of this. But back to the matter at hand… you've discovered how to save this world?"**

**Skigh shrugged slightly. "Uh, I guess?"**

**"I understand your concerns with this. But I'm here to see that things don't fail. You probably haven't figured out exactly how to go about this, have you?"**

**"We… haven't gotten there yet," Skigh answered back. "I really feel like I should be calling you something… I-I know you're pretty high up, and-"**

**The voice interrupted in order to reassure her. "No name for me is necessary. Your work is well done, though not complete. And even through this it is not complete. I'm just the messenger. 'Sir' or any title like that isn't something I need, because I'll only be here a short while. Now, I must warn you that this will weaken both of you, because only one of you is not enough to begin the healing process for this world."**

**"B-both of us?" McKian stammered, nervous. "How is that possible?"**

**"One of you is the creator, holding the power to construct new objects. The other has more limited ability, but power nonetheless to add onto the other's. The 'watch' and the 'screen' as you called them- the two must be combined."**

**Skigh and McKian stared at each other. "You mean-"**

* * *

"Okay, so remind me what-"

"Oh, please don't go there again!"

I jumped. Those voices were way too close for comfort with these videos streaming. I shut the screens down and ducked behind the console, hiding against the building as the voices got closer.

"…So we shot enough for a few weeks. That gives us some time. So… how's the thing with Alan going?"

That was Skigh! That meant-

"ENCOM's convinced," McKian said, laughing. "But turning the whole thing into a video game… I'm shocked Paige and Beck didn't have our heads for it!"

"As I recall, they were part of the planning for this," Skigh replied.

The glowing ones… I shook. What were they talking about?

"How much is it gonna be?"

Skigh sighed. "Flynn wanted a digital frontier that would open doors on medicine and religion and the like. I think preserving his vision is a good idea."

"So… free?"

"Close. Those consoles are gonna cost a fortune to build. I'd say five bucks?"

McKian laughed again. "Five bucks? The board won't accept that."

"Alan's the chairman. They accept it, or accept getting fired."

"Still the same Skigh I know and love."

The two of them laughed. I froze, watching as they stepped closer.

"Hey…" Skigh and Mac stopped. "The screens are on."

"What?" McKian and her started tapping screens and buttons. "We didn't leave these on… right?"

Skigh groaned. "No. And I know it wasn't Alan or Tron."

"Paige?"

"Doubt it."

"Able?"

Skigh sighed. "No, not him… no matter how many times the guy's left stuff out for me to fall over."

"… do you think maybe Beck?"

"No." Skigh hesitated before adding, "No, Beck's not quite… I mean-"

McKian agreed. "Yeah, that was a shot in the dark."

Shot in the dark? That was a newer term, a-

a User term!

They were Users!

I froze. What if they got mad at me for seeing this? I had to get out of here before they found out.

As I started sneaking along the side of the building, away from Skigh and McKian, my hand hit a button and a light somewhere overhead went out. Was that some kind of alarm system I'd just triggered? Not good…

"Hey!"

I gasped. They'd seen me.

Time to get out of here…

* * *

_-okay, ? is only in this chapter. they aren't gonna die- i promise!_

_and so, this begins the last book in this series… only a few more chapters left… i'll miss writing Skigh and McKian, but they'll always be here :)_

_please leave any thoughts you may have on this chapter in a review- wait, that sounded really strange for me…_

_please just take a couple seconds to leave a review! (there, that's more like it!) :)_

_God bless! :)_


	2. Chapter 2

(Skigh's POV)

"What did you do?"

McKian fell off the couch as he woke up. He yawned and stared up at me; he was really groggy. "What?"

"No, not you," I tried to clarify as I helped him back onto the couch. The poor guy in the last week had been passing out anywhere and everywhere possible for sleeping. He looked shot. "Go back to sleepy land," I whispered to him as he sprawled out, already grabbing a pillow.

"That only works… on McKenzie," McKian mumbled, already half asleep. "Only on…" he was out.

I grinned and pulled a blanket over him. I smirked as I noticed it was my purple one; Mac wouldn't care anyway. He was exhausted.

Jump Drive hopped over, his black body and glowing lights a comforting sight as he hopped up onto the grey leather couch by Mac's head. The little bunny curled in close to McKian, his tiny ears brushing Mac's forehead and his bright blue hair.

And then RAM hopped over. Her pink and white body snuggled next to J. D.'s and the two bunnies fell asleep with their creator. I smiled and kissed Mac's forehead, then stepped away to deal with what I'd originally noticed upon coming into the living room.

The files were opened for the… project. (Yeah, not telling you yet… I'm evil! Eh, not really- you'll find out in a little bit what this is.) I saw every little piece of the project displayed-

and one little piece was majorly messed up.

An easy fix, sure. But a fix was still nerve-wracking. I tapped the screen of the super computer in the side of the auditorium (I can't really call this place a house- too big) and started tapping the lit up icons to fix the problem…

Everything clicked. When the videos were accessed on the Grid last night, it must've caused this one tiny glitch…

but who had accessed them?

I sat down and put my head in my hands, not angry or tense, just thinking. Beck wouldn't have… and Tron wouldn't have…

would he?

I bit my lip. He may have accessed the archives, if he wanted to catch up on what Beck and Paige and all of us had been up to since he… turned, more or less.

I stood up and pulled off the fingerless gloves I wore, the right hand showing the screen, and the left one revealing my engagement ring from Mac; true, not the most traditional one ever, but definitely the most heart-felt one. I smiled as I tapped my watch and transported to the Grid. I had time before Mac woke up, and before Knight got back from… wherever he'd gone. Probably Chick-fil-A to stuff his face with more food.

But I had time.

And I was gonna use it.

…

This whole glowing dress thing… I was not getting used to being a walking glow stick.

I tapped the watch again and in seconds went from standing behind the club to the cliff, standing just outside the house that loomed over the small shred of Grid we had left for the programs. The house was pretty decently sized, and the roof glowed, on the higher level as well as the lower one.

Stood below the door up on the third level and looked up as a spiral staircase appeared from nowhere. As the last step appeared at my feet, I started climbing up, well aware that one of those programs below probably was watching me. Well, so be it. There were some rumors, and they could just humor themselves with their rumors. Gossip was at a minimum; but this… I couldn't blame them.

The door slid open and I stepped inside. One program lay on the couch, a blanket covering them entirely, even their head, in blue fabric.

"Skigh?"

I turned and saw Tron standing right by me, a glass of energy in his hand. He had on a white robe which hid his original Tron suit. The scars that had marred his face as Rinzler were gone, and his eyes glowed. He slowly smiled, another change. I smiled at him. "Hey, Tron."

Tron tilted his head towards Beck. "He's tired out. I… I'm not sure why though," Tron slurred the last part with concern.

"How have you two been?"

Tron shrugged and suggested that we go downstairs to avoid waking Beck up. We stepped onto a platform and it acted as an elevator, taking us down to the first floor, into a sitting room with lots of soft stuff to sit on; the whole place was built for comfort and relaxation; every floor had an energy dispenser, places to sit, and the Grid's version of a TV. "We've been okay."

"Okay?"

"I…" Tron fell onto a lower couch, the red material causing him to sink into it as he looked at the floor, "I just feel really bad about being the one to… to reveal who he was…"

I sighed. "Tron, that wasn't your fault. It was CLU's." I couldn't believe- well, I could- that he thought because CLU infected him with repurposing code when he was "healed" earlier on that it was his fault Beck's identity was revealed.

"But-"

"Not. Your. Fault."

Tron looked up, sad. "I should've stopped myself-"

"Tron, programs were going to find out one way or another. It was inevitable. You did nothing wrong." I wondered how Beck felt; he was the one who'd been betrayed by his mentor… He had forgiven Tron, but I knew all too well that forgiving is far easier than forgetting.

"He won't even go out around his friends…" Tron stared at the energy in his hand and swirled it around in the glass. "Maybe if… if I went out and… I don't know what to do."

I bit my lip; how was I supposed to go about this? Beck was scared to face his friends… and Tron was ashamed for an action he'd had no control over…

Maybe Alan would have an answer…

* * *

"I don't know how to answer that one."

I stared at Alan, the light coming through his massive office window at ENCOM making him look incredibly tense. "You mean you have no idea how to-"

"I don't know," Alan repeated, closing his eyes. "I have no idea how to even begin to- I've never had to think about this!"

I sighed and fell back in the none too comfortable office chair I sat on. "So… we let Beck become a digital hermit and Tron become a nervous wreck?!"

"I never said that was the solution."

"You never said a solution!"

Alan smirked. "Okay, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to take that."

"You take it with a smack upside the head," I joked, smirking back despite the situation playing out. "We need to get Beck out of that house-thing… and then maybe Tron will have an epiphany or something?"

He shrugged. "Maybe." Alan looked out the window, then fingered the name plate on the edge of his desk. "We both sound like we're grasping at straws."

"Well, I am," I admitted. "I don't know about you though."

"If you're out of ideas, then I'm definitely drained."

I smirked again. "Gee, and I thought wise old Alan knew all the answers."

"Hey! I am NOT old!"

We both laughed at that; what we really needed, though, was a way to fix the problem.

It seemed like it was taking far too long to come to a solution.

Maybe McKian would have an idea or two…

...

And hours later… Mac had something.

A very good something.

I grinned. "This could work. But-" I sighed as a downside popped up "-what if it doesn't?"

"Well," Mac shrugged in the same manner Alan had; how much time had he been spending around the guy? "We'll just have to be convincing."

"You mean you will."

Mac smiled; oh, great, that innocent smile of his was back… He moved closer to me on the couch and kissed my forehead. I felt my face get hot. I really felt like I should've grown used to being around him. But McKian was someone who always had new ways of making our relationship feel like we fell in love all over again every day. "Right. I will."

"So…" I stared into his green sparkling eyes, his blue hair hanging in front of them. "Just how good are you at playing the Renegade?"

* * *

_-this should be interesting… i think, personally, that Mac's a little too tall to pull off the Renegade, but we'll see… ;)_

_thanks, Come to the Well, Briannajs-22, and chescab for reviewing :)_


	3. Chapter 3

(Skigh's POV)

"Beck?"

Beck just stood there, not looking up much at the group of his friends and co-workers gathered out by the end of the bridge; he looked scared at the fact that he was facing them.

Mara smiled. "Beck, where have you been?"

Beck just avoided saying anything. And avoided eye contact.

"Don't you mean 'Renegade?'" Dash asked unhelpfully.

Beck still looked away, not sure if saying anything was going to be a good thing at this point. His suit was back to the original blue and black, no "T" anywhere. But apparently his friends remembered all too well him being unmasked in front of everyone. That wasn't making this any easier.

I glared at Dash as he dared to press further. "What? Not talking?"

Zed glared at his friend. "Dash, shut up."

"Why? I just want some answers to why he's hasn't been around."

Mara rolled her eyes. "He probably has good reason." She smiled at Beck again. "But where were you?"

"Busy," Beck answered softly, not really saying much of anything.

"Busy," Dash scoffed. "Always busy."

Able, standing behind Dash, threw his hand into Dash's shoulder. "Stop being an idiot."

I watched as Beck just shifted from foot to foot, not daring to move any closer to his friends. He was freaked out by this; not good…

"Well, now me getting all your shifts makes sense," Zed remarked, grinning to show he wasn't mad about that anymore.

Beck nodded. "Yeah… sorry about that."

I smiled. This was looking better and better. Now if he could just-

"Why did you hide from us?" another co-worker asked, frowning at Beck. Her frown turned into an icy glare. "Too scared to face us after-"

I shook my head. "End simulation."

The programs derezzed from the auditorium stage, the buildings and bridge also fading into nothing. Beck glitched and McKian appeared, shaking his head. "I can't believe that they'd… this is gonna be a nightmare!"

"If that happens, Beck is gonna be crushed," I mumbled, aggravated. Not angry. Just plain aggravated; you mess with my friends, and I get angry then.

McKian sighed. "So, was I convincing as Beck?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Just a little bit taller than Beck, but otherwise well done."

"I didn't sound too… you, know… insecure, did I?"

Shook my head. "Beck would probably sound worse, actually. The poor guy's too scared to even show his face."

"Then we need a new plan."

I smirked at McKian. "Something tells me you have another one cooking in that noggin of yours."

He smirked back, the "tattoos" on his arms pulsing darker after his suit faded into a grey shirt and black shorts more fitting for the hot July weather. "I don't… at least not a good one. But I think we should ask someone who's more of an expert."

I frowned as he walked away, looking scared. Who did he have in mind?

* * *

...

* * *

(Mac's POV)

I stared at Skigh's cell phone as it rang, feeling really scared. It wasn't that I hated Alex for… what he'd done. I'd let it go. It was an accident.

I was just scared of it happening again.

"Hello?"

I jumped at the sound of Alex's voice. He wasn't yelling at me. That was good. He was Skigh's brother, so… maybe he'd be nice this time? I couldn't tell.

"Skigh? I have caller ID, you know. Are you there?"

I still had no idea what caller ID was, but Skigh and Knight and all of us were used to checking the auditorium phone or Skigh's to see who was calling. "Uh… it's not Skigh…" I couldn't get anything else out. I was too scared to even think.

"Mac?"

"Y-yeah. I-"

"You sound terrified!" Alex shouted in concern. He got quieter and asked, "Are you okay, Mac?"

I wanted so badly to say no- "Yeah, I-I'm fine."

"You don't-" Alex stopped. "You're afraid of me, aren't you?"

I couldn't lie. "A little."

Alex sighed. I cringed, waiting for him to scream again. "Mac, I'm not going to do that to you ever again. I swear. I'm not mad at you, and I have nothing against you. Please…"

I took a deep breath and felt a little better. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"Um… how do you get someone to go somewhere they don't want to go?"

Alex took a deep breath like mine. "Well, who are you talking about?"

"Not Skigh, I swear! I-"

"Calm down, Mac. I know you didn't mean her." I stared at the phone again. How had he- "What I mean is, has this person done something bad or-"

I shook my head. "No, nothing like that." His voice was calm. That made me feel a little bit more relaxed. "B- they actually did something good, but it got messed up, and-" this was really hard to explain without saying Beck's name or Tron's- "now they're scared to face their friends."

"Hmm…" Alex didn't answer right off. "Well, usually I just set up a bunch of meetings and stuff that even I can't keep straight, but that isn't gonna help them, right?"

"Not really."

Alex sighed. "Okay, so… is tricking them an option?"

"I guess so."

"You were trying to avoid that, huh?"

"Kinda."

Alex laughed. "Okay, we'll call that plan B. Maybe they just need to face their fear head-on."

"I… I don't know if that's a good idea."

"But that might be the ultimate solution. Have you tried that?"

I shrugged, shifting the phone in my hand. "I think Skigh tried that."

"Hm… I have a question for you."

"Okay."

"Why did you call me?"

That I was not expecting. "Well, I thought- and I don't mean this in a bad way- I just figured you… had more experience with being so high up in REVOLUTION and all that you'd have a better idea of how to get people to go places."

Alex laughed. "Well, I know how to get them to go places- wait!"

"What? Is something wrong?"

"No- I think I have a solution for your problem."

"What is it?"

"Well," Alex laughed again, "here's what we've gotta do…"

…

The club was now more friendly and inviting, I'll say that. And getting to be there with Skigh again was great, especially since there was no Pavel to have to beat up.

We sat in the one booth, my arm wrapped behind Skigh's back, as we watched Beck's friends, somewhat listening in on their conversation.

Skigh sighed. "So, who came up with this idea again?"

I looked away from her, scared that she'd be mad at me. "A-Alex."

"Alex?" Skigh tilted my face back towards hers, looking into my eyes with her brown ones. "Mac, I'm not mad about it. I'm glad we have something to work with." She moved closer to me, her glowing Grid dress thing flowing over onto my glowing suit. She smiled at me, trying to get me to stop worrying. It almost worked.

And then I felt her lips hit mine. I gently kissed her back, my tongue slipping and hitting her lips a couple times before she backed away, her smile back. "Now do you believe me?"

I smiled back and nodded, just a tiny bit nervous now. Alex's plan was good. I only had to change one tiny part of it so that this had a better chance of working.

The plan was to watch Beck's friends and see how they acted without him. Watching all of them together, even Bodhi who'd come back to life during the whole… process (I really have no idea how to explain that), they all seemed somewhat empty.

And then we were supposed to find a way to get Beck out of that house on the cliff. That wasn't going to be easy.

And finally, we had to get him around his friends.

So, we had to trick Beck, and then get him to face his fear…

This was gonna be hard.

I glanced at Skigh, then stared as she stared back, grinning like Knight did when he was gonna pull one of his pranks. I laughed, and then she laughed too. I was glad she was my best friend… well, right after the Big Guy upstairs.

Suddenly, everything went quiet. I noticed everyone staring behind us.

I turned and gasped. "Uh, now what?"

Skigh gasped. "Did Alex-"

"Nope."

I felt her back tense as she stared along with everyone else at who had just walked into the club…

* * *

-yeah, Alex's plan isn't the best... but it's a plan... yeah, i'm tired...

and… okay, i want food. writing this made me hungry… i don't know why, but right now, i want food.

okay, enough of me getting ready to raid the refrigerator. any thoughts on the story so far? please leave a quick review. they mean a lot :)

thanks, Come to the Well, PrincessKai317, and Briannajs-22 for reviewing :)


	4. Chapter 4

(Skigh's POV)

This was… an unexpected development.

I watched, unable to get up for some reason, as the program everyone's eyes were on walked past; his eyes briefly met mine, then McKian's, and then he continued on.

Mac took a deep breath. "Well, if Tron's here…"

"Then Beck can't be far behind…" I finished, seeing Tron approach Beck's friends. "Okay, we have three options."

"Which are?" Mac whispered back, matching my quiet tone.

"Either we run-"

Mac nodded. "Or?"

"Or we stay here-"

"And what's the third?"

I grimaced. "Hide under the table and wait for the bomb to go off."

"I'm guessing you mean Tron?"

I nodded. "Yep."

"Then crawl under here now."

I stared at Mac. "Why?"

McKian pointed at Tron, who was talking with Beck's friends… and Dash was beginning to get on his case.

I shook my head. "No. I'm sick of him and his crap. Dash is gonna learn that there's times when that mouth of his needs to shut."

My anger only flared when someone hurt my friends; and Dash was ripping Tron apart.

"Okay, here's an idea, genius," I snapped as she stepped in front of Dash. "Learn when to shut it."

Dash rolled his eyes. "And you are?"

"Hmm… let's re-visit lesson number one: learn when to shut it." I tapped my hand and the screen activated; hit the switch and Dash started floating over my head. I smirked. "Yeah, I kinda had to make a slight re-write, but I think the point still got across."

Tron gasped. "Okay, that's pretty incredible."

Dash flailed around. "What's the deal?"

"I'm sick of you treating fellow programs like they're nothing because you just want to run your mouth." I lowered him back to the ground and glared at some of the mechanics. "And he's not the only one. Some of you need to watch your mouths. That's the reason Beck hasn't come back- because he already heard you guys trash the Renegade enough times when he was saving your lives nonstop."

"That's ridiculous," Dash scoffed.

I shrugged. "Okay, let's move on to lesson two: when you slam my friends, I'm not too happy. And I can do much more than just make you float," I hissed, pointing at him.

"She's right."

I turned around and smiled. "Thanks, Mac."

"Mac?" Dash stared in disbelief. "The misfit?"

"The one and only," McKian returned, smirking. "She can kick your butt, and I can transport you into a world where YOU would wind up being in Beck's position- scared."

Zed frowned. 'What do you mean?"

"I mean that some of you aren't the problem with Beck hiding. But others of you are," McKian explained, crossing his arms. "I hid from everyone for the same reason. I didn't want to know what people thought of me."

Mara looked like she was gonna cry. "So… he's scared of us?"

"Not of you, or Zed, and definitely not Able or Bodhi," Tron slipped in. "But others of you," he glared at Dash, "have made him too scared to show up around any of you."

Dash shook his head. "That's not because of me."

"Okay, so," I stepped closer to him, "you're not the one who said the Renegade was too busy to care about you guys, yet he had to listen to most of you bash him?!"

Dash clenched his fists. "Oh, that's it!"

He rushed at me and I just raised my hands, the powers on my screen still activated. I just twisted my one hand slightly and Dash fell to the floor. He jumped up as I relaxed and I let him attempt to punch me in the face; I blocked it and sent him flying into the floor again. He was going to learn this lesson one way or another.

Sadly, the hard way it seemed.

Ducked. Dodged. Threw Dash back into the floor. And then repeated it all. At least a dozen times.

Dash gasped as he pushed himself up from the floor. "Okay, s-so maybe I'm a little careless with what I say. Big deal."

McKian pulled him to his feet; he tapped the screen of his watch. "Big deal? More like huge deal. Words are powerful, and though they can be forgiven, they're much harder to forget."

Dash rubbed his arm where I'd accidentally threw him so he kinda sorta hit a table. "So, words hurt. Big deal."

"Where I'm from, words can be enough to cause someone to take their own life."

The mechanics gasped, like the idea was horrific. Don't get me wrong- someone taking their own life IS horrific- actually far more than horrific. More like for these guys it was unimaginable.

Dash sighed. "Can't believe you had to slam me into the floor twenty-six times to get the point across."

"If she didn't, I was going to," Tron commented. "And I don't need any powers like hers to do it."

"Hey, you actually joked about something!" I laughed, as did McKian, and then Tron chuckled as well. "And gee, you have a blasted bad record of health and that makes using my abilities to prove a point bad?"

Tron smirked, unexpectedly. "Uh, no. I just meant that I could throw him across the room without a screen being in my hand."

Zed stared at us. "Wait… you two glow."

I nodded.

"Why?"

I glanced at McKian, and we both glanced at Tron. "Long story," Mac finally managed, being the only one to speak.

"I don't remember seeing you two around Argon, just now, around the new Grid," Mara said thoughtfully. "Who are you?"

Introductions… not a problem. "I'm Skigh, and this is my friend McKian."

Zed smiled at Mac. "It's good to know you have a name other than 'the Misfit'."

McKian just smiled slightly and nodded, that modest side of his flaring up; Alan said I was pretty modest… maybe I was. I don't know.

Bodhi's hair fell in his eyes as he shook his head. "Wait, what about Beck? The poor guy's terrified of us!"

Mara nodded. "He's right." She looked at me, brushing her blue hair behind her ear and frowned. "Where is Beck?"

I glanced at Tron, hoping for some help, which he gave. "He's hiding."

Able winked at me. I almost gasped in shock. How- well, there were those rumors… no, Able probably knew from the start that Tron was back to hiding himself somewhere and probably had Beck with him. I smirked and winked back, grateful for him not blurting out Beck's location.

But now to get him away from that location…

"I thought I heard someone say Beck's name, so…"

I turned around and smirked. "You've got great timing," I commented as Paige walked in, the purple and green circuits from her medic uniform reflecting off the floor. She smiled and ran a hand through her long hair which now fell to her waist. Maybe there was still a chance to get Beck to leave the cliff...

* * *

…

* * *

(_okay, i'm using_ Beck's POV _again… hope this comes out okay._)

Not leaving.

Never leaving.

I stared out the window, down at the trees and other stuff that hadn't been on the old Grid. This new one was much smaller, but more… beautiful, I guess. I hadn't really bothered to go outside and see just how it all looked up close.

I looked up from the valley and saw the sun coming up. That was new, too. The sky was always dark before. Now it wasn't.

I wondered how Paige was doing. I hadn't seen her in a long time, many cycles… in a hilocycle at least. In User time, it was probably more than a month since I'd seen her.

And my friends… I hadn't seen them. I couldn't see them.

I didn't want to face them.

What would be the point in facing them? I sighed, struggling to breathe for a second. They'd all been mad at the Renegade, and I still remembered their words, not even the fact that I'd forgiven the words helping to remove them from my mind.

My head hurt. I used the elevator and went upstairs, collapsing onto my bed, too tired to think. Every time… I laid there, staring at the ceiling and felt something wet on my face.

Crying…

I'd seen Skigh cry, and Mac after he got beat up by Alex. But programs didn't usually cry… or did they now, after that boomy voice told Skigh and Mac how to save the Grid? I didn't like crying.

I really didn't like it.

I sat up, my head in my hands. Every part of me hurt. Being around Tron was easy, even though he'd been the one to reveal my identity to everyone. He hadn't meant to,which made me feel slightly better. I'd forgiven him for it.. But…

my friends probably didn't like me. They probably wanted me derezzed.

I wanted me derezzed.

I pulled my disc off my back and stared at the edge of the blade as I activated it. It would hurt to derezz…

But maybe…

I turned the edge off and sighed. There was no easy way out.

I jumped as I heard footsteps. I knew Tron had gone out, but I didn't know where. "Hey, Tron," I called out, weakly getting up and swaying for a second. Why was I so worn out? "Tron?"

The footsteps stopped and I heard the elevator activate. Something wasn't right. Tron would've answered back.

The elevator appeared and I froze, shocked and horrified. "Who- what-"

"Miss us?"

* * *

…

* * *

(Mac's POV)

My watch beeped an alarm. Everyone stared at it. Skigh frowned. "That only ever made that sound once before…"

I nodded, mentally and physically tapping the screen. "I know."

It had only made that sound when Beck had nearly died to stop CLU from using a weapon to destroy Argon not all that long ago.

I gasped. "Not good."

Tron gasped too. "How is that possible?!"

Skigh shrugged. 'I don't know, but we gotta get back to your little hideaway. If THAT-" she pointed to the hologram appearing on my watch in bright blue, her hand shaking, "-is somehow here, it's coming for Beck."

Paige glared at the hologram as it's information ran up the side of the screen beside it. "Then let's go. He doesn't deserve to get hurt by anyone else."

"We're coming too," Zed said, him and Mara and Bodhi stepping forward. "He's our friend too."

"Yeah, and I've missed out on a lot of time with him," Bodhi added.

I nodded, as did Skigh and Tron. "Then let's move!"

* * *

_-probably should've said this sooner, but this story takes place about a year after the last one. sorry…_

_sorry if the updates are a little fast- i just wanna get the whole thing posted before school starts. only 6 more chapters left… and then more stories :)_

_thanks, elementofwater, PrincessKai317, and Come to the Well for the reviews :)_


	5. Chapter 5

(Skigh's POV)

We… were too late.

Beck was gone, and every floor had soft, overturned furniture; the floor was scuffed, and it was obvious- there was a struggle here.

Tron hung his head. "That… thing got him…"

McKian started fixing the furniture. Zed frowned. "What are you doing?! This is no time to redecorate!"

"I'm scanning the stuff," Mac answered back, flipping a massive green beanbag off a couch. "And it looks like-" he stopped.

I decided to ask. "What?"

"The… thing that attacked Beck is… more than one thing, which is why it had seven eyes, four noses, two mouths, and three arms."

"What is it?" Tron asked.

Paige shook her head. "It's not 'what.' It's who."

"Who?" Tron was shocked. "That monster is a who?"

Mac nodded. "Yeah… a mix of Tesler, Pavel and CLU."

"I'm not hearing anything about Cyrus, so that's good," I commented, thankful for the bleak light side of the situation.

"Cyrus?" Mara was confused. "He was nice."

Mac shook his head. "He nearly killed me, he nearly killed Skigh, he betrayed Tron, and eh tried to blow up you guys AND Able."

"Oh…" Zed bit his lip; now that they heard this, they probably were feeling a bit guilty about blaming Beck for Able's death. Wait… they accused him of murdering Able. Well, Mara did at least. I sighed. This got better and better.

"But how did CLU, Pavel and Tesler get combined?" Bodhi asked. "That seems a little impossible."

I shrugged, looking at the readouts on Mac's watch which were holograms floating above it. "I'll bet when CLU and Flynn reintegrated it was the reason a lot fo programs got derezzed." I glanced at Zed, Mara and Bodhi, the only ones who followed us to help Beck. "You were lucky- you were in a stasis file. But it looks like CLU and Tesler and Pavel weren't as lucky and got combined from the reintegrating process and… it looks like CLU lost an eye."

"So now we have a program three times stronger than any other."

McKian cringed. "Actually, ten times stronger." He rolled his eyes, trying to not look so scared. "I'm thankful we got that upgrade of Pavel's, otherwise, this thing would be unstoppable."

"Let me guess- combined strength?"

He nodded and tapped the holograms of information; Paige just stood there, not too thrilled. "Tesler's special arm modifications, Pavel's knowledge of science, CLU's idea of perfection, their combined fighting strengths, and their combined sadistic nature."

"Lovely," I muttered. This just got better and better and better… wow. "So where is… this monster who I don't know how to refer to?"

"Um… he's on the outskirts of the Grid, at the edge of the sky barriers."

The Grid, I should probably explain, now had limits- no outlands. The cliffs and mountains just extended to where the sky met them and it all ended.

And that's where the ultimate dimwit was…

"Let's go kick Dimwit's butt," I muttered, knowing my eyes were going that orange-gold, mainly because Mac's were blazing bright green.

"I thought Dimwit was the guy-"

I smirked at Mac. "He's a thing of the past," I said, still feeling scared over the whole incident where he wouldn't let me save him from falling to his death in an exploding building, "and this Dimwit's a little bit more deserving of the title. Now, we have a Renegade to save."

Mac and Paige and Able got the reference to our show back in the User world, but Zed and Mara didn't, and Tron looked a little uncertain at first, but got it. "No, he's THE Renegade."

"Not exactly," Mac answered, leaving it at that. "Now let's go get Beck back."

…

The outskirts of the Grid were mainly rocks and a few blades of grass here or there; and a blasted trail of someone who had no regard for preserving it had just barreled through here, leaving a path all too easy to follow.

"Why does this seem too easy?" I asked, starting to have trouble breathing from pushing myself to move really fast over the rugged terrain; my health wasn't good to begin with, so pushing myself was probably not a good idea.

"Because of the last two years of our lives," Mac answered, smirking until he looked at me. His look became concern-filled. "You okay?"

I shook my head. "Doesn't matter. Beck's more important."

"Last time you said something was more important, you passed out."

"If I pass out again, go on without me. I'll just go back home."

Mara spoke up- "Where is your home?"

"Uh," was not expecting that, "pretty far away from here."

"Oh." Mara nodded as I gasped, trying to get some of my air back; I wasn't doing well…

…

"There it… he… is. Good God, what do you call that thing?" Mac asked.

I was a little out of it, and an answer wasn't coming. What I did know was that when Pavel, CLU and Tesler combined, they became more hideous and demented than before. I wanted to puke, partly because of seeing that… thing in front of me, and because I'd overexerted… again. Big shock.

"Anyone see Beck?" Paige asked, peeking over the side of the boulder we knelt behind, trying to find her friend.

"Yeah, he's- got a bad gash in his head!" Mara gasped. "He's unconscious… or in sleep mode… not really a difference is there?"

I couldn't answer; I heard Tron say something in response, but I couldn't tell what he'd said; everything was blurry. And I was seeing three Trons… yeah I was doing pretty bad.

I felt sick… but I looked up anyway.

Beck was laying on the ground, looking like he'd got beat up; several deep slashes covered parts of his body, and many littler cracks and wounds glistened bright blue; it looked repairable, but as he moaned in pain, I noted, sadly, that he was really weak from worry and fear. And that monster-thing was standing over him. I cringed as I heard it speak, not sure if my being kinda out of it was effecting my hearing to that degree. "Is that-"

"It sounds like a bunch of voices at once," McKian mumbled in shock.

I noticed that bits of other black guards had been molded into the monster in front of us. Gross… The beginnings of an arm hung here and there; part of a foot… on his back… I'll just stop there, saying it was nasty and leaving it at that.

"You stay here," Tron said, sneaking out from around the rock. He looked pretty ticked off. "Last time-"

"Gee, you guys all live in the past…" I smirked. "Fine. But remember-" I pointed to the screen in my hand, "if it gets too bad, this is stepping in."

Tron nodded and motioned for the others to follow. Only Mac looked back at me, concerned and very worried looking. I mouthed, "I'll be fine," to him; he nodded shakily and turned back, tapping his watch.

The… thing, as I called it, turned around to face Paige, Able, Tron, McKian, Zed, Mara and Bodhi (good God, am I the only one thinking that's a lot of blasted names to list?!). The eyes, all some shade of putrid yellow-orange, blazed with hatred. Lovely. "Oh, great… more idiots," it gargled.

I almost puked. That was like the voice of every program in CLU's now nonexistent army crammed together.

Wait… if their voices were combined… then what else could possibly-

"Tron…" two of the mouths curled into nasty smiles, laughing. "We thought you'd be here sooner. Something more important come up, other than coming to your dear successor's rescue?" Dimwit (okay, that's better) laughed again. "We must say, he fights well, but not well enough in his… exhausted condition."

"What did you do to him?!" Paige snarled.

The being raised just one arm in a shrug; my vision tripled it. "Oh, Paige… we did nothing got cause the exhaustion. That was there before. We just… had to knock him out. He didn't like the idea."

"I don't think any of us did," Zed spoke up, his green circuits blazing.

Beck groaned on the ground, twisting. Dimwit growled, sounding a lot like Rinzler; I noticed Tron flinch at the sound. Oh, great… "Looks like someone needs to stay sleeping…" Dimwit's foot hit Beck in the face and Beck's almost opened eyes snapped shut again, a new crack forming on his temple. "Now…" Dimwit turned back to Beck's friends. "To put you to sleep along with him…"

Because I wasn't feeling too well to begin with, I'm not sure who threw the first punch; and I don't mean which side- I mean was it Tesler, CLU, or Pavel? It was directed at Tron, who blocked it pretty well, but still stumbled back under the force of the punch. McKian's watch was bright blue, activated and in fighting mode (most likely), as he punched Dimwit in the face, leaving a decent orange-puke-yellow slash, and then kicked his feet out from under him. "We're not tired yet," Tron snapped back, getting in a kick of his own as Dimwit glared with every eye and tried to stand.

Paige glared back as she got closer; Dimwit's one arm lashed out, catching her in the face as Zed, Mara and Bodhi came in from behind, probably because of a plan they'd all come up with right before confronting Dimwit. "We're too strong for you to stop! Just because you got in a couple lousy hits means NOTHING!" Dimwit garbled.

I thought McKian flinched for a second as well; he was terrified of loud noises, so Dimwit yelling? Yeah, not helping much. Even I was scared of loud noises, mainly because of my past. I numbly felt my hand rub my arm where it had been sliced open and carved up into the REVOLUTION symbol (ironically, the Tron "T" with an extra square on the top and bottom… who would've thought, right?) I cringed, both from that, and from the fact that Tron had gotten kicked and was-

not getting up.

I tapped the screen on my watch, dizzy, and checked his condition. He was just unconscious-

which, given the scenario, was pretty bad.

Zed and Mara were picking up where Tron had left off, getting in a few slashes with their discs. the damage was minor, though. It seemed like maybe, just maybe, Dimwit was unbeatable in it's quest for revenge… or power… or whatever the blasted thing was after.

I sighed. Tron had said to stay here… but… I rolled my eyes. When was I ever one to follow the rules?! The only rules I followed where the Big Guy's, and Tron wasn't him.

"IDIOTS! IDIOTS! ALL OF YOU!" Dimwit started screaming, every scream making my blood boil as McKian and I both cringed with each yell. I gasped as Zed was knocked out, then Mara. It was a simple punch to the head, nothing too serious. But we'd lost two more in the fight…

we couldn't afford to lose any in the first place.

Now, Able, Bodi, Mac, and Paige were left. Able was recovering from a pretty nasty kick in the gut, and Dmiwit sneered at him, "You were much more entertaining as my subject for experiments!" That had come from Pavel; that had ot have come from Pavel!

Bodhi looked shocked. "What is he talking about?!"

Dimwit saw his shock and took advantage of it, a loud crack echoing as his fist met Bodhi's jaw, that fist being connected to one of Tesler's arms, stretching more and twenty feet to land the hit. Bodhi fell next to Tron, trying to stand a couple times, then giving in to unconsciousness.

Something suddenly sparked, and Dimwit screamed as the sparks, as I could now see a little better, poured from his back in yellow-green currents. He fell to the ground, Able standing right behind him, a broken baton in his hand, the end roughly snapped off and derezzing. The other end-

was in Dimwit's back.

A huge hole opened in Dimwit's back, the pixels a sickly brown under his suit; as more fell from him, they flashed yellow and orange. He howled in pain, and I winced at the sound, seeing him double.

I stepped out from behind the rock, sick of sitting and watching. If I was gonna pass out, I was NOT gonna pass out from hiding behind a rock. I tapped the screen in my wrist and raised my hand.

Dimwit, now on his hands and knees, looked up at me and laughed.

Able went in for another hit, but with what I was going to try, I didn't want to risk his safety. "Get back!"

Able, Paige and Mac scrambled backwards, McKian staring at me, probably thinking I'd lost it.

Dimwit's ugly cackle echoed again. "What? A puny little program?! To fight us?! How ridiculous!"

I just twisted my hand and cringed as he screamed in agony; I'd twisted the baton slightly, enough to make him weaker- not enough to kill, though. I wasn't going to be the one to finish him off.

My vision tripled, creating three Dimwits rolling on the ground. I had to let up for a second, even the light from the Grid sun overhead not enough to keep me from getting dizzy.

Dimwit gasped, trying to laugh. "You… You can't def… defeat… us," he managed. "We will achieve perfection! We… will! Perfection-"

He was cut off as my vision suddenly cleared and a disc sliced into him, turning him not to pixels, but to dust; and then the dust vanished.

He was dead.

Looked up from where his remnants had been and saw Tron standing there, catching his disc without looking as it returned to his hand. He just stared at the ground. "Finally."

Able stood by him. "It's over… It's really over."

Paige and Bodhi rushed over to Beck, Paige gently taking his disk and trying to revive him, as well as undo some of the damage and heal him. Bodhi, when he was sure Paige had it all under control, left Beck's side and helped Zed and Mara, who were finally almost on their feet, saying they were a little sore.

I felt myself fall to the ground, realizing three things; one- I couldn't hear anything anymore; two- my vision was almost black; and three- I'd drained almost all my power on that one simple thing. I must've been draining it all when I overexerted before.

"Skigh!" I could hear that much. I couldn't tell who picked me up though. I shivered as wherever I'd been sliced open or wherever a previous injury was burn like fire. The person, or program, or whoever it was, said something else, but I couldn't make it out, mainly because I was losing my battle with unconsciousness.

I finally lost and the fire died inside me.

* * *

_-sorry if there are some mistakes in here; just got sprayed in the face (more like my EYES) with jalapeno pepper juice... so everything's a little blurred._

_thanks, PrincessKai317 and Briannajs-22 for the reviews. they mean a lot :)_


	6. Chapter 6

(Mac's POV)

"… and THAT'S why this isn't possible!"

I held back a sigh. This chair was really uncomfortable. I thought ENCOM could afford better chairs…

I was wrong.

Alan sighed, his spot at the head of the table making me smile. "It IS possible! This is something that we're creating, not for the money- we have plenty of that- but to so people that technology is more than just a computer or an app or a cellphone!"

The guy across from me glared. I didn't know anyone's names at this meeting, aside from Alan's, but this guy was creeping me out. I didn't like the staring and glaring thing. "But you're basically giving it away! Five bucks for a… game console that we can easily make six or seven hundred on?!"

"Making money is not the objective, Mr. Dillinger," Skigh said. I was glad I was sitting be her. At least being between her and Alan was helping me feel somewhat better.

"Then what is? Charity? Miss Ryker, or Walker, or whatever your name is now, you don't know the first thing about this business! We need a profit in order to keep our jobs!"

Skigh just stared at him. Her face was still a little pale from passing out… last night. "You have plenty saved up. At the last count, I believe the company was topping close to one hundred billion in worth?"

"I still want a paycheck," another guy muttered.

Skigh sighed. "Look, what's the point of overpricing stuff? You're not the ones making the consoles- you're buying them off someone else! And you're not programming them with their data- someone else is! So I suggest you review your facts and get over the blasted fact that when you die, your cash doesn't go with you!"

She was acting mad. She wasn't mad. Skigh hardly ever got mad.

I glanced at Alan and saw him smirk. I smirked back. This plan had come from all of us- Alan, Skigh, Paige, Beck, Tron, Able, Knight, me- all of us!

"So…" a woman down toward the end of the table crossed her arms, "you just expect us to sell a video game for five dollars?!"

"We can do ten," Skigh answered. "But five is preferable."

"Who's making these game consoles anyway?" the same woman asked.

Alan shook his head. "They prefer to remain anonymous. And that's the way they will stay."

"But-"

"That is final," Alan glared at the woman, making her stop asking questions.

The truth was that I was the one making them. And they were, well…

Here's what they were.

Every console was a copy of the new Grid. But they weren't tied in with the real Grid. The programs we'd salvaged in the reconstruction of the Grid supported this idea as well, and everything, including them, was duplicated multiple times. And each console was a tiny box with one button. A little blue button that if it's owner pushed it, they would transport to the copy of the Grid. And they would be inside their own copy of it, able to explore it.

And one building in the real Grid held all the secrets to how it wound up that way. We had just… edited some of it. We played it so that the parts that we were involved in were missing. And as for how the Grid got fixed… sound only. The owner of the console could live as a normal program, or could be an explorer, their choice. The only thing they couldn't do was become a tyrant. There was a spot for disc games- harmless ones. No more Coliseum, no more Occupation vehicles or bases- nothing for a dictator, as Skigh called it, to make their home.

"So, this game… no controller?" The guy who'd being glaring and staring at me laughed. "Every game has a stupid controller. And I don't see one in this model of yours." He picked up the display copy in front of him, a small cube about the size of a soccer ball, little lights on it glowing different colors on the outside and around the button. "So… where's the controller?"

"The owner of the console is," Skigh answered.

He stared at me. "What? You don't answer anything?"

I looked at Skigh. "Well, you're doing pretty well so far."

Several ENCOM board members laughed quietly. The guy sat the console back down. "So, you said something about getting inside it. Can the player get back out?"

Skigh nodded. And that was true- the owner, once inside, had a spot on their suit, which they could design, that would let them transport back. There were no side effects, and there would be no injuries if they got injured inside the game.

Flynn had a little too high view of his creation. He thought it was the answer to everything. It wasn't though. Not for medicine, not for religion (well, sort of, depending…) and not in many other areas. But it was the answer for showing people how to defend their beliefs.

"Hello?"

I almost gasped. Skigh did though. Nathan Rose, the president of the United States (I never understood why the United States was called the U.S.A. if it was the Unites States of America- why need two different names?) walked in, nodding at the members of the board as a greeting, then picked up the console. "Hm…" he grinned. "Just got back from yet another bill getting overthrown…" he winked at Skigh and me so fast no one else noticed, and then he turned the console in his hands. "And now I came to see this."

"So you're in on this, Mr. President?" an older man at the table asked.

Nathan shook his head. "No, but I'm interested in this idea." He smirked. "And… ENCOM is already at the top for technology… why all the concern with loosing money? I know how much you have in accounts, in savings, in stocks- in everything. I'd say you could charge two-fifty for this little device and still make a boatload."

That didn't sound like a lot of money. Two fifty? how much was that?

Skigh shrugged. "They were a bit skeptical, even when I said we were willing to sell for ten."

Nathan's eyes widened. "Ten?!" He shook his head. "Ten bucks a pop… no, five is just fine. And besides," he sat the box back down. "I believe this is to somewhat uphold Kevin Flynn's vision?"

Skigh nodded, as did Alan and I.

He grinned. "Then five dollars should be enough for one of these."

What the board had yet to discover was that if you bought multiple boxes, you could invite friends into your Grid and see what you'd done. One person per console.

I smiled as the president left the room, having to get to some charity event. Nathan Rose was a good president. Him and Skigh both did everything by the book, that little blue book Skigh owned, actually. I was still reading it, and I believed in the stuff it said, but some words I still couldn't get.

I smiled at Skigh as she picked up the console, twisting it in her hands like the president had. ENCOM was going to be blown away by what this little "box" as they called it could do.

…

"I think that went well."

Skigh, Knight and Alan and I sat in the restaurant, Skigh sitting by me, Alan on my other side and Knight by him in the rounded booth. I didn't know what the name of the place was, something about… Red? And a bird? A robin? I wasn't sure…

But as I slipped my arm around Skigh, I was sure about one thing. I really loved her. A lot. And I can't believe she'd never given up on me. We'd never fought, which I guess was good. I kissed her forehead and she leaned on my shoulder, tapping her rootbeer float and watching the straw spin around. She smiled and I smiled back.

Knight smirked. "You two…" His dark skin matched the tabletop. "How did I ever get pulled into this?"

"I thought you kinda volunteered," Skigh said, and I struggled to not spit my mouthful of soda across the table at him and Alan.

Alan laughed. "Okay, things finally seem like they're back to normal."

"Normal?!" Knight snorted. "Nothing is ever gonna be normal again! We left normal in the dust a long, long, LOOONG time ago, dear Alan!"

We all laughed. But as everyone did, including me, I wondered if maybe, just maybe, things would've been better for everyone if I hadn't showed up unexpectedly. I wasn't in control of landing his Skigh's house unannounced, but still…

Knight poked me from across the table. "Hey. don't you start beating yourself up! You're the reason we're all here!" He poked Skigh too. "Both of you are! And I don NOT want to know what my life would've been like if you never showed up."

Skigh smiled and kissed my cheek. I was shocked. I… wasn't that important to them… was I? She just smiled more, her brown eyes glowing gold. "I don't want to know either." Alan nodded and grinned. "That makes three of us."

* * *

_-four more chapters... and Cyrus might show up... not sure yet ;) if he doesn't, i'm sorry, but if i can, i'll bring him in somehow._

_thanks, Briannajs-22, Come to the Well, PrincessKai317 and chescab for the reviews :)_


	7. Chapter 7

(Skigh's POV)

Almost August…

my birthday was coming again…

great.

I stared at the TV, thinking about my birthday, and whether or not to turn the blasted thing on; yeah… two totally unrelated topics there… but since no one was home- Mac and Knight went to go pick up some food, and Beck, Paige and Able were on the Grid- I sighed and gave in to grabbing the remote off the couch and turning on the TV. Yeah, I hated the news, and I hated the politic crap in the news (I don't debate about politics- I debate about beliefs), but maybe something was on that was good.

"… And the newest ENCOM game has come out and has broken ENCOM's previous two records…"

I couldn't get my mouth to close if I wanted to after it fell open. We'd broken BOTH records?! The reporter in her red dress stood outside the building, several other news companies behind her. "The game was manufactured by an anonymous provider, and each console only costs five dollars. The game, according to the critics, could easily be priced at over five hundred dollars-"

"No duh," I muttered, smirking. So what if Flynn had only been partially correct? He wanted to share this with the world when it was ready…

And now it was.

I changed the channel several times, each time hearing about the late night release of the Grid Cube (for the record, I did NOT name it that!) the previous night. We'd even bought a few, that way Knight could explore it himself, and so my dear brother Alex could go in with him and learn just what in the world had happened- well, most of it.

I wondered what was going on on the Grid; ever since Beck had started being around his friends again, I noticed him become even more closed off. Tron seemed like he'd managed to stop freaking out about the whole slicing Beck's helmet to bits in front of a full Coliseum and revealing his identity thing, but Beck…

something was still wrong.

…

"Skigh!"

I jumped after transporting to the Grid. Who was already yelling for me?

Turned around and saw Bodhi standing there, trying to keep his hair out of his eyes, and failing. He was breathing hard. Oh, please don't say that Dimwit came back from the grave… or… wherever derezzed programs go. "Bodhi, what's up?"

He took a few really deep breaths, trying to get some air in his lungs, or whatever programs had, before blurting out, "Something wrong… at the garage…"

"What?! What do you mean?" The garage… oh no. This could mean Able or Zed or Mara or anyone there could be-

"There was… an accident-"

That was all I needed. I took off, fully aware that not even a week ago, I'd passed out from a mix of overexertion and exhaustion; but right now was not the time to think about that.

Started scanning the garage as I ran. But the scanner was blocked… that was new… unfortunately. I almost fell over as I saw Bodhi start running beside me; yes, this dude was fast! "The one light cycle we were working on decided to explode- a glitched code or something…"

"Was anyone hurt?"

He nodded, and I felt my stomach twist painfully. "Who?" I asked, trying to keep some air in my lungs, just long enough to make it to the garage and hopefully not pass out again.

"Um… the program who was working on it-"

"Which is who?" I interrupted, nervous about him obviously trying to put off telling me who was working on the bike.

Bodhi looked really sad, and I wondered if he was gonna start crying. "Beck."

…

"Oh God, no …" I gasped as the garage came into view, a gaping hole in the one wall, several light cycles and vehicles reduced to nothing but piles of shimmering pixels; part of the ceiling was gone as well. I shuddered as flashes of REVOLUTION blowing up filled my mind. I shook my head, trying to clear it. Now was NOT the time for that!

All the other mechanics were trying to clear a huge pile of rubble from the wall being blown to bits. I saw Zed and Mara and Able all near the bottom, trying to clear the heavier pieces of debree; the pile was too big for them to cut through, so-

I gasped again, seeing Beck's arm sticking out from under the pile. He could be crushed under that! Tapped my watch without a second thought and in seconds the wall was back to normal, as were the vehicles, and the pile was gone.

Beck didn't have any injuries, but after scanning him as I knelt beside him with his friends, he'd probably have a decent headache for a cycle or two. Ouch… I wondered if Tylenol would transport between worlds… He groaned and open his eyes slowly, then snapped them shut. "What happened?"

"Your bike exploded," Zed said softly, probably knowing that talking loudly was only gonna create more pain for his friend. "You only got knocked out."

Beck nodded, then winced as he opened his eyes. I frowned. Light bikes didn't just explode… what was going on? Was this now a normal thing? I hoped not, but if a program was still alive who hated the Renegade, Beck was in a lot of danger.

I looked at Zed and Mara. "Get him inside so he can lay down," I said, nodding at Beck.

Beck glared. "I'm fine." He pushed himself up and insisted on working. "I'm fine. My head just hurts."

"It could be a concussion, genius," I replied, trying to make sure he wasn't moving too much. Everyone just stared at me; oh, right… concussions are User stuff, Skigh! Keep up. "I mean, you shouldn't move around a lot, or the headache could get worse." Man, Tron must've drilled the whole work-til-you-drop thing into Beck pretty well… that wasn't gonna help us much now.

Beck sighed. "Okay. I really wanna help, though."

I bit my lip, realizing that this was him wanting to make up for missing work as the Renegade; the poor guy was still worried about that…

…

"Mac?"

Just a few minutes later, I sat with Knight and Mac on the couch, trying to get down a chicken sandwich; my stomach was still in knots from the whole explosion thing. True, it was just a short thing- not too intense- but… something was bugging me about the bike exploding.

"Yeah?" McKian picked up his third sandwich, finally understanding that he could eat as much as he wanted; the guy could probably clear a supermarket out in minutes if he wanted to.

I frowned. "Do…" I tried restarting my question, "Do light bikes have a chance of exploding?"

"Not really…" McKian frowned now instead of me. "Why?"

"One exploded, took out the garage wall, and knocked Beck out."

McKian froze, his sandwich almost to his mouth. "That wouldn't be an accident though." He sat the sandwich down and explained, "If a bike malfunctioned, the explosion would be minor, not big enough to take out a wall. And it wouldn't knock anyone out, unless they were riding it and got thrown off in the explosion."

"But why did this bike put a hole through one of Able's walls?"

"I'm guessing you fixed it up, right?" Knight asked, shoving half a sandwich down his throat. I nodded and winced as he swallowed. Oh man… how he did that, I'll never know. Not like I want to…

Mac sighed. "It would have to have some explosive somewhere. Probably a small bomb."

"Isn't it a little strange, though, that a week after crushing that… thing… that this happens? To Beck?"

Knight shrugged, already knowing the details. "Well, it could be coincidence."

"I don't believe in coincidence, though," I remarked, shrugging. "I mean, maybe I'm just paranoid, but it just doesn't seem right."

McKian picked up his chocolate milkshake, drinking half of it in one gulp. "But who would want Beck derezzed?"

"I don't know…" I sighed. "I thought all the threats were gone, not resurfacing all over again."

Mac shook his head, his solemn face disappearing into a grin as J.D. hopped onto his lap. "Hey, buddy- no! No fries!" He laughed, handing me his fries as Jump Drive's little bunny nose sniffed them. What was with him and RAM and fries?! I laughed as he tried to bite the bottom of Mac's milkshake cup and Mac rolled his eyes. "Okay, let's go get you a carrot."

RAM hopped onto his lap too and his grinned wider. We all laughed as RAM tried to bite his straw. "Okay, you can have one, too."

…

"Perfe… i… fre…"

I jumped. "Mac…" I grabbed McKian's arm, realizing again just how short I was, as I thought I heard a voice. "Mac, did you hear that?"

The little bridge that led to where the programs lived (now) was dark as the Grid's sun began to fall behind the cliffs; and now, the bridge was really dark.

Mac shook his head after listening for a couple seconds. "Nope. What did you hear?"

Almost smiled, but was too freaked out by the brokenness of the voice I'd heard… McKian always believed me if I said I heard something or saw something. No one else ever had, always treating me like I was stupid. "It was almost like… like Rinzler's voice. All broken and growling, you know?"

Mac shivered, only his circuits and glowing eyes visible now in the bridge as his watch lit up and a baton rezzed up in his hand. "Yeah, that doesn't sound so good…" He looked around. "I'm not detecting anyone in the bridge with us- hey, that's weird."

"What?"

He smacked his arm, the one with the watch, his hand hitting the black and blue and lit up case of it. "The scan stopped. It's like it's blocked."

"Really? Mine was like that yesterday outside the garage-" I stopped, hearing something again. "Mac?"

"I heard it." He whirled around, his hearing probably a lot better than mine, given the fact that he had the watch of many talents. His bright green circuits glowed brighter, as did the pale blue ones. He rezzed up the light cycle. "Let's get out of here."

As I got on, I heard the noise again.

"Perfe… is… ee…om…"

…

As soon as we got away from… whatever that thing was, Mac and I got on separate bikes; McKian just smirked as we started riding through the mountains near the outskirts of the Grid and said, "Don't ride this one into a light wall!"

I rolled my eyes. "That," I swerved into his bike, and we both laughed, "was one time! And I couldn't see!"

Mac just laughed harder.

We rode around for a while stopping here or there to see just how different the Grid had become after the whole… incident; big boomy voice; combining our powers; long story that even Mac and I can't explain. It was truly breathtaking and I was in awe of the power- but it wasn't our power… again, a long story.

But after a while, I thought I heard a third bike behind us. I turned and saw exactly that-

but it was orange.

Now, orange meant nothing evil, but something about this bike was off, like the orange was almost skewed to be reconstructed into it's original evil definition or something. "Hey, Mac?"

Mac glanced back and glared; I could see that he was scanning the rider. "It's getting blocked again!"

Blocked scan… not again! I pulled my bike around, thankful for the good turning radius and did probably one of the fastest U-turns ever. I never thought of playing Chicken with another light cycle headed straight for me-

until now.

I tapped the screen in my hand, trying to get another read out. Nothing. Again.

As the bikes got closer, I waited, and waited, and knew that Mac was either right behind me, or was thinking I'd lost it, or both. Swerved at the last minute, as did the other driver. As they did, I stared at their helmet and suit; very few circuits-

very few orange circuits.

I noticed McKian riding right beside me; he must've been behind me. "Let's get outta here! That guy's swerving like he's drunk!"

Mac nodded and we both raced ahead of the orange rider, weaving through the mountains wherever there was a tight space. Several times I nearly laid the bike down on corners or by ducking to miss cliffs overhead. I kept glancing back, the driver still following us. Who was this guy?!

Over the roar of the engines, I thought I heard the other rider yell. I listened and gasped as he screamed, "PERFECTION IS FREEDOM!" in his incredibly broken voice.

Mac looked at me. "Did he just say-"

"I think there aren't 157 programs left… I think there's 158!" I yelled over the engine noise.

Mac shook his head. "Now what?" he shouted in question.

I glanced around; we were riding on the edge of a cliff, wide enough for two riders-

not three.

I motioned for McKian to slow down. At first, he looked shocked, but then realized what I was doing and hit the brakes at the same time I did. The other rider tried to pass, but not even half the bike made it around ours on the cliff and he went over.

Mac and I derezzed our bikes and Mac stared down the cliff. "He's not dead."

"Good!" I jumped over the edge, skidding down the edge of the mountain.

"Good?! How is that good?!" I could hear Mac sliding down behind me.

I hit a flat spot and stopped; Mac bumped into me as he stopped and he started to apologize. I stopped him, smiling. He was going to get out of that blasted habit one way or another! "It's good because maybe we can help him!"

Mac shrugged. "I'm not arguing there. It's just that when… you know who… fixed the Grid, none of the guards were re-rezzed like Bodhi was, and none of them survived the stasis! We were lucky these ones did! Where did this one come from?"

"I don't know…" I had to admit that; besides, no one knew where he was from, except the Big Guy Upstairs.

I saw the rider laying face down another twenty feet down. "Um… maybe not my best idea…" I mumbled, jumping from the flat ledge and sliding down the mountain face again, Mac passing me in his descent, landing right beside the rider on the wide ledge where his bike had derezzed into tiny orange cubes. I landed beside him and Mac sighed. "No injuries, surprisingly. The bike must've cushioned the fall somewhat."

I frowned. "Can we roll him over?"

Mac shrugged. "I don't see why-" he gently turned the program over, the orange guy's helmet still in tact, then his eyes widened "-not."

Felt my blood turn cold. This program… but… he couldn't… he... he'd set up the bike to blow up?!... he- "He can't be-"

"I think he is." Mac reached for the unconscious program's arm, trying to check a minor injury, when the program jumped up like nothing had happened, assuming a fighting stance.

McKian raise his hands to show he wasn't going to hurt him, but the program didn't care; he kicked Mac in the chest and Mac stumbled back, almost off the wide ledge. "Look! I'm not gonna hurt you!" Mac tried saying it aloud.

That didn't work either. The program growled and threw his fist out. Mac grabbed it, holding him still. "I don't want to hurt you!"

"Per…" the program's speak broke off into a growl… oh, Good God, no! I never thought-

"PERFECTION IS FREEDOM!" The program screamed (hey, I wasn't sure I knew his identity- it was a hunch) and started punching McKian. Mac motioned for me to stay out of it. Man, why was everyone telling me to stay out of fights?!

As the program screamed, again, about perfection and all that, I wondered if he had a fried circuit or something; probably one than one fried circuit… But that wasn't hurting his fighting ability. In fact, as Mac and the orange creepy dude fought, I realized that my hunch was right. The program-

collapsed.

McKian got up off the ground, rubbing his arm, a bruise already forming over his left eye; his eyes twinkled, not fully glowing yet, as he stared at the program. "Did I really just-" he broke off his question by coughing. I gently grabbed his arm to steady him as he swayed, nervous. "I'm f-fine. Got punched in the ribs."

Ouch.

He stared at the program, then to my surprise, prodded him with his foot, knocking him onto his back. McKian tilted his head and pointed at the program's suit. "Well, that's why he passed out."

The program's circuits flickered and I knelt beside him, needing to make sure he was- yep, he was. "How in the world did this happen? I thought when the code was purified that the… messed up code… was destroyed."

"So did I…" McKian suddenly looked horrified. "You mean… now… there's gonna be THREE Tron's?!"

I almost laughed. "Well, technically two Trons and one Rinzler who… wait, if Tron looked really badly scarred as Rinzler… then what does Rinzler look like?"

McKian bit his lip as Rinzler groaned. "Um… probably not so good…" He placed his left hand on the helmet, his watch pulsing as the helmet disappeared.

I almost puked. What had CLU done?!

The face was practically Tron's; well, except for the massive scars twisting orange over his face. I was thankful the programs didn't have blood, or I would've either barfed, or passed out. Unhealed split lip (in several places). Incredibly pale skin, even for a program. Scars barely hidden by his suit- the list went on and on.

What really hurt was the flickering "T" just under his neck. I winced. The whole reconstruction thing must've taken the separated code from Tron and created a copy of him as Rinzler. No- it had created Rinzler.

Rinzler growled in his unconscious state, then made that freaky purring noise. Mac shrugged. "Dude sounds like a cat."

I actually did laugh that time. "Can you make him… you know… not so kill-crazy when he wakes up?"

Mac shrugged again. "Let's see…"

…

"Whoa! Whoa! Easy…" Mac tried pushing Rinzler back down to the ground as he woke up and tried to sit up; his eyes were a cloudy orange, and he looked… terrified… Wasn't really expecting him to be scared of us.

Rinzler purred… or growled… or whatever that blasted noise was. He looked shot; he needed energy, but we were trying to wait giving him more than we already had (these new pools and creeks flowed with crystal clear energy… and it was really strong) in case he tried attacking again. He opened his mouth like he was gonna talk, but then shut it, shaking.

"We're not going to hurt you. Relax," I tried to calm him, soothingly rubbing his shoulder. I was thankful we'd healed him the best we could, otherwise he probably would've winced in pain at my touch. He stared at me, the scars on his face now just dull dark marks. He opened his mouth again, but still said nothing.

McKian tried something else. "Where are your discs?"

Rinzler shuddered and tried to get up, horrified at the mention of his discs that were no longer there. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed that when he was fighting Mac; him not having his discs meant-

"Sorry. I didn't mean to upset you," McKian said quietly, trying to calm down Rinzler and shattering my thought process. "Do you remember your name?"

Rinzler stared at him blankly, then nervously shook his head.

I glanced at Mac. Rinzler had amnesia! Permanent amnesia! This was… well, it seemed good… after all, who'd want to relive constantly killing other programs because their morals were destroyed? "Do you remember anything?"

Rinzler shook his head again, his eyes never leaving us.

"Can you talk?"

I frowned as soon as Mac had asked that. He was talking, no- SCREAMING his bloody head off- earlier, so why-

Rinzler tried, and shockingly, the only sound he could make was that purring noise. He looked like he was gonna cry, either from being scared, or that noise he was making that kinda reminded me of Darth Vader… He'd probably been losing his memory as he chased us, and somehow his voice was gone. Probably a shorted code that I couldn't fix or a result of the amnesia.

So Rinzler had amnesia… and he was mute…

this was interesting.

…

"Who's he?"

Knight stared at Rinzler, and Rinzler stared back, his now dark blue eyes locked on Knight's somewhat hazel ones and his much darker skin.

I shrugged; I didn't feel like calling him Rinzler… I really didn't. And Mac probably didn't either. But Rinzler was a result of CLU's sadistic streak, not a chosen thing to become a feared monster. "Knight, this is Rinzler. Rinzler, this is Knight."

Rinzler just tilted his head towards me. He shook his head.

He didn't like that name… "You don't like that name?"

Shook his head again.

Mac smiled. "Okay, good. I didn't like it either."

Knight, standing above Rinzler- who had practically fallen into the couch- watched as Jump Drive hopped over and onto Rinzler's lap.

Rinzler flinched and shrunk back against the couch. He purred.

Knight's eyes widened comically. "Geez, the new guy sounds like a kitten! What's up with that?"

RAM joined J.D. and Rinzler stared at the two bunnies, not mad, just scared. I picked them up off him and he calmed down, each breath accented by his purring.

Mac sighed. "He's really scared… never expected him to be so scared."

"I know. " I nodded. "But now, he needs a new name…"

* * *

"Rick?"

Rinzler shook his head.

"Matthew?"

Rinzler shook his head again.

Knight sighed and threw his hands in the air. "Mitchel?"

Another no.

"Luke?"

No.

"Mark?"

No.

"Albert?"

No.

"Howard.

Yet another no.

"Jake?"

Rinzler shook his head again, not even looking up at Knight as he traced the seam on one of Mac's shirts. his suit had derezzed after only hours, and he'd been with us for three days. Now… after the whole thing that Alan (thankfully!) covered… he needed a name.

"Brad?"

Rinzler shook his head without hesitation. I smirked. Knight had been naming name after name every day… and nothing. "Give it up, Knight. He's not liking any of them."

Knight sighed. "Fine." He shrugged. "You don't like any names? At all?"

Rinzler shrugged, then shook his head.

Mac walked into the kitchen; now that it was only us three, we'd all moved back into one side of the auditorium rooms, leaving the others open for any guests. Mac's hair, though it already did this, stuck up in every possible direction, mores than usual like it always did in the morning. He yawned and pulled a grey shirt over his head, causing his blue hair to stick up more. He stared at me, then yawned. "Seriously?"

"What?" I looked down and started laughing. Grey shirts, blue shorts, black hightops… we'd managed it again.

Knight shook his head. "I'll never understand how you two do that."

Rinzler, still a little weak, stood up and stepped closer to us, staring at me, then Mac. He smiled slightly as he caught on. I wished he could talk… poor guy.

I noticed for the first time something about his appearance that was far different from Tron's. His hair. Where Tron's hair was much shorter, Rinzler's was long, not quite as long as McKian's, but still long. And it had a red hue to it that made his brown hair look like a rust color. How was I just seeing this?

Rinzler wasn't a monster anymore… but…what was he exactly? Would he want to go back to the Grid… or would it be better for him to stay here? I mean, he couldn't stay on the Grid… or could he? What would the programs think of him? What-

too many questions at once. I took a deep breath and got calmed down after the thought of the possible reactions on the other programs' behalf and smiled at Rinzler. He smiled back and looked around. Time to get some breakfast, then ponder all the blasted possibilities the future held…

* * *

_-well, long chapter… sorry... for... any typos... * passes out* ;)  
_

_i really wanna rename Rinzler so bad… but i can't think of any good names… any suggestions or thoughts, guys? or, better yet… any food? seriously, i'm hungry… maybe i'll eat this fuzzy thing i found under my bed!_

_thanks, Come to the Well, PrincessKai317, QuilSniv, and Briannajs-22 for reviewing! :)_


	8. Chapter 8

(Mac's POV)

"What… was that?"

I stared at the pile of pixels at Tron's feet just outside his house on the cliff. Something felt really wrong.

Tron sighed, placing his disc back on his back. "You mean 'who' was that."

I almost didn't hear him. "So… 'who' was it?"

Tron didn't answer, just stared at the pile. Who could this have been-

wait… orange-blue circuits, many showing previous damage…

"Cyrus?"

Tron nodded.

How… when… he didn't do the same thing Dimwit had, been brought back as a creepy monster… did he?

Tron glanced at me. "He was brought back to life too… I've scanned and rescanned the Grid. No sign of any other possible threats."

I sighed. "What… what did Cyrus do?"

"Well, among other things, attacked me… and threatened to derezz Beck."

Great… "I should've been here…"

"Why?" Tron frowned. "You don't derezz other programs, and he also threatened to kill you and 'that little idiotic User.'"

I shrugged. "Yeah, but it doesn't look like that fight went well."

Tron nodded, then swayed.

I grabbed him and stared at the wounds that Cyrus had managed to give him before getting killed. Four deep slashes and a couple glowing splits in his suit here and there. They wouldn't be too hard to fix.

* * *

**"YOU!" I jumped at the sound of Cyrus' voice. For some odd reason, the Grid had filed this memory away as… audio only. That wasn't normal. Then again, what was anymore? Programs had come back from the dead, programs had been combined, the Grid had been basically recreated- wait, that one was more understandabl- nope, not really.**

**I could hear the sounds of the fight, but that was all. Tron hadn't said a word yet.**

**"I will derezz you! And Beck! He wasn't worthy! I WAS!"**

**Tron still didn't answer.**

**I heard the sound of a disc hitting a program and Cyrus screamed.**

**"I'LL KILL THAT LITTLE IDIOTIC USER! AND HER MSIFIT FRIEND!"**

**There was more screaming from Cyrus, and then it ended as I heard a disc move quickly, like it was dicing-**

**wait… the only way to derezz Cyrus was to either blow him up, or get him into really tiny pieces…**

**Tron had remembered!**

**Tron grunted in pain the first time he'd even seemed hurt. He gasped for a second, then finally said something after a long silence. "You were always predictable."**

* * *

I sighed. Great… he was gone. Finally…

We'd thought this was all over when Cyrus blew himself to Kingdom Come… but now… it probably would've been better to be the one who got rid of Cyrus instead of Tron…

I'd messed up again…

Like always.

* * *

…

* * *

(Knight's POV)

Mac was down… again

He always was. The poor guy was always down. Always.

Why?

What was so stinking wrong this time? What stinking stupid think had happened this time?!

Skigh had noticed, too. She woke up early with me so we could figure out what had stinking happened. She sighed and stared at her coffee, which, by the way, with her vanilla creamer tasted so stinking nasty it wasn't funny. "I don't know what's wrong. He won't say."

"I know…" I stared at my cup of coffee, my black coffee. "Anything happen off in computer land?"

Skigh shook her head. "No, not that I know of anyway. But…" she sighed again. "He started looking really upset after going two nights ago…"

"He went?" I was shocked. Usually he would've said something. "I didn't hear anything."

Skigh shrugged. "Maybe the watch upgraded the transport with a "mute" button?"

"Maybe…" Something was still wrong.

Very wrong.

Mac wasn't even eating much… again! He'd been doing so good… and now… stupid stinking stuff that had to go wrong.

I just stared at my coffee. What had happened?

…

(Skigh's POV)

Knight was right; something was definitely gnawing at McKian.

But…what?

I stared at the ceiling in my room, just recently painting it a neon green; at night, it was almost a glow in the dark type thing. It was calming… well, except for right now. I was pretties sure nothing could calm my brain down; every thought was moving so fast and there were so many of them…

Sat up, throwing off the covers that, quite honestly, were far too hot for the summer heat. Tapped the screen on my watch and my green sleep shorts and pin tank top vanished, turning into my dark suit and glowing dress thing, my scars hidden beneath both as my bedroom turned into the Grid.

Time to investigate Mac's sadness.

…

"Systems are fine. Coding is stable. No new security threats," I muttered the list to myself as I stood at the consoles outside the one building, the Tron "T" looming over my head in the side of the building. Everything was functioning fine.

Everything…

was perfectly, one hundred percent, fine.

I frowned and kept running scan after scan; diagnostic after diagnostic; there had to be something, anything that I'd missed.

I filtered the coding networks and the mainframe.

Nothing.

Re-scanned the program count.

No change.

Sliced into the security history for the past few cycles-

one glowing red file.

I tapped the file, then dragged my fingertips over the screen, pulling the edges of the file with them. Red files meant issues in security. They'd come up after Dimwit's freakish return-

and now there was another one.

I sifted through the file, seeing it held quite a bit of information. The other one hadn't held this much…

had it?

Shook my head and refocused. No. It hadn't even had half this.

So why was this one so blasted big?

I tapped the last data stream and an audio feed played back. I stared at the screen in shock and horror.

Cyrus…

He'd come back like Dimwit had… crap.

I shut down the audio feed as soon as it was done and smacked my hand off the side of the building, using my abilities to soften the blow so my hand didn't break. Had Cyrus fought Mac? Had he hurt him? Had he threatened him? Was he still around?

Wait… the voice at the end wasn't Cyrus'; it sounded like Tron's. So he hadn't fought McKian. Good. At least that much was good…

And then that meant he hand't hurt him. Physically anyways. For all I knew, Mac was a bystander.

(Just loving how I was answering all my questions at this point…)

But had Cyrus threatened him? Maybe… he had before, anyways.

And was he still… here?

Hoping another manhunt wouldn't break out back in my world (like last time… still don't know how he got into my world, but okay…) I scanned without the screens; used my screen.

Cyrus was…

derezzed.

So that's what that sound had been at the end of the clip. That awful, bit by bit breaking down sound… it was nasty.

But Cyrus was gone.

He was really gone.

But why hadn't Mac said anything?

* * *

…

* * *

(_back to_ Mac's POV)

"I didn't want you worrying."

I stared at the floor, thinking that Skigh was definitely mad at me. She was. She had to be. She had to.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and slowly looked up to see Skigh smiling at me. I wondered why she was smiling. She wasn't happy about me not telling her. At least, I thought she shouldn't be. She should be mad. She should be very mad.

Skigh smiled wider. "Mac, it's okay."

"It… it's n-not." I looked back down.

"Yes, it is. I was just worried about you. You were really out of it, just sad. I don't wanna see my best friend sad."

I sighed. "Wait… I thought I was your second best friend…"

Skigh smirked. "You're a close second. I think it works that way for you too, huh?"

I nodded, starting to feel better and smile. "Yeah. I think He-" I pointed at the ceiling "-is always gonna come in first."

Skigh laughed and moved closer to me on the couch. RAM and Jump Drive hopped in and jumped on our laps. I smiled.

As I held Skigh close, I realized that I really did have one of the best friends anyone could ask for.

And no one was left to threaten us.

* * *

_-2… more… chapters… left :( but hey, more stories after these though, so… :)_

_got Cyrus in there! sorry to kill him off... again... so soon this time. but i really wanna get back to Rinzler, especially now that he has a name ;) thanks, Briannajs-22 for the help! :) (don't worry- his name will be revealed soon enough!) ;)_

_thanks, Briannajs-22, Come to the Well, and PrincessKai317 for reviewing :)_


	9. Chapter 9

(Skigh's POV)

Aidan just stared at the TV, his knees up to his chest. He looked like he wasn't sure what to make of it-

(wait… you don't know who I'm talking about… do you?

Here's a hint…

He purred, and still does, like a cat.)

I smiled as he picked up the TV remote and stared at that, a low purr echoing in the living room. Rinzler… was now a random dude named Aidan who was incredibly shy, curious, and couldn't say word one. He was very nice… still trying to get the cogs in my brain to made sense of that last one.

Mac walked in and sat by him; Aidan changed his unending stare from the remote to McKian. Mac smiled warmly. "You watching the TV?"

Aidan glanced at the television, then nodded slowly. He purred and looked down. I frowned. Was he alright?

He stomach suddenly rumbled. Grinned. "Gee, I think it's time to fill that bottomless pit of yours."

"Who's? Mac's, or kitty dude?"

Finally burst out laughing. All of us. I turned and saw Knight behind me in the kitchen with his hands filled with Wendy's… perfect timing.

…

Aidan stared at the french fries, watching as Jump Drive and RAM hopped up onto the counter and sniffed them… and then Mac scooped them up so they wouldn't eat the fries. He seemed scared of them.

Knight frowned. "Dude, you okay?"

Rinz- Aidan looked up from the fries, staring wildly at Knight.

"Here. They won't hurt you," Knight said, trying to calm Aidan down; the last time he'd gotten scared he almost started hyperventilating. Knight picked up a couple fries and twirled them between his fingers; Aidan froze, a look of complete horror on his face, just like the last time when Alan tried to help him understand how the shower worked and the water came out of the shower-head and some went in his mouth.

I watched Knight, hoping this was gonna calm down Aidan. He glanced at me quickly, then focused solely on Rinzl- Aidan as he slowly opened his mouth and bit into the fries.

Aidan gaped. His deep blue eyes went wide, then he relaxed and got his mouth to close. He tried grabbing the fries himself and shoved a handful in his mouth.

We all laughed as he tried to chew them and some fell to the floor, one landing on RAM and J.D's heads each. He smiled and picked up the bunnies, cuddling them against his chest.

I smiled and picked up my Coke. For a guy who looked about thirty, he was incredibly… innocent.

I glanced at Mac, who was trying to pick the oranges out of a salad (wow, Knight… who's gonna eat the salad? None of us are rabbits- wait… no, orange juice is acidic and bunnies can die from eating that… wait! I like salad!) and he looked so innocent as well. For a nineteen year old (or… a few months older than me), he was also very innocent. I smiled again, everything we'd ever done together or wound up involved in playing in my mind as little flashes…

* * *

**Finding him lying unconscious on my floor…**

**Him nearly sticking his disc through Alan's throat when he still had his suiting this world…**

**His suit disappearing and him discovering that socks were made to keep feet from freezing…**

**Him getting in a fist fight the second he got out of my car because two jerks tried breaking into it…**

**Tackling Ian, my former boss and to a point father-in-law, so he wouldn't get shot…**

**Him trying to figure out how to get a headset to fit on his head to go on air with me…**

**… and then seconds later disappearing back into the Grid, only to, thankfully, show up a little later…**

* * *

That was only some of it… I looked down at my hands and ran my fingers over the part in the black fingerless gloves where the scars were beneath… and then where my engagement ring was, and then the screen…

"Thanks," I whispered, sparing a glance up at the ceiling in reverent thanks for Mac. "Thanks, Big Guy."

* * *

_-it... is... almost one... in the morning... oh well :P  
_

_short, i know. but i figured that this was good enough… if not, i'm sorry. i just wanted a somewhat simpler chapter in here. only one more chapter left…_

_i really hope that you guys have liked the series thus far- (man, "thus" sounds really weird from me… let's fix that) -i mean "THIS" far! (there! better!) ;)_

_wait… was i seriously just talking to myself? oh, well… ;)_

_school starts for me tomorrow, so the last chapter's coming out later today, and then this series is over. but Skigh and Mac will always be here. :)_

_thanks QuilSniv, PrincessKai317, Come to the Well and Briannajs-22 for reviewing :)_


	10. Chapter 10

(Skigh's POV)

This… was… boring…

I wasn't sleeping… again. And I'd forgotten to charge my iPod and my phone, and they were dead-

wait a second!

"Gee, someone's out of it," I muttered, rolling on top of the covers, the air conditioner not making much of a dent in the 87 degree temperature inside. I tugged on my blue tank top and red shorts, trying to see if there was a way to peel them away from my skin, which they'd managed to melt to. Reached out, mentally triggering the screen to kick in and a blue glow stretched from my hand to my phone, figuring the power would be more effective on that, which Mac had already modified; watched the battery go from twenty-six percent to one hundred and smirked.

This was kinda cool. It was humbling to have it, kinda shocking and always leaving me in awe when my insomnia kicked in… you know? It was just so… incredible.

The phone then floated over into my hand… I grinned, then jumped and nearly dropped the phone as it started playing music.

**"There were days when each hour was a war I fought to survive. There were nights full of nightmares, and I dreaded closing my eyes. There were skies that burst open with a downpour to drown me alive, but the world took a spark like a match in the dark, and the fire brought me to life…"**

"Embers"… yeah, great and all, but I was thinking more like… uh… I was more in the mood for Coldplay (for I don't know what reason… but "Viva la Vida" usually could get me to pass out and sleep… dear God only knows why.). But Owl City was good, too… but I usually listened to that if it was gonna be a long night. (I liked Owl City better, but I wanted to sleep…)

**"So I'm fanning the flames to climb so high, 'cause there's no other way we can stay alive…"**

Wait… this song was… this was the one! I banged my fist off the bed, realizing I'd wanted to use this song for the next set of Renegades episodes because...

**"'Cause we're burning bright as we all unite. And when it's all said and done, we'll shine like the sun, so don't let the fire die. And we'll watch the sky as it fills with light. And though the embers are new, whatever you do- just don't let the fire die…"**

Curled my fist into a ball. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten this! How had I… possibly… EVER… forgotten this?!

**"And you find they'll be mornings when the ashes and embers are cold. But you'll fight with a passion, and you'll never stop 'cause you know. Yeah you know, it gets better and your story is yet to be told. Every push, every shove, every war, every love- yeah, the coals are beginning to glow…"**

I felt my eyes start to sting. Crying… why did it always end with me crying?

I pushed myself up off the bed, grabbing my headphones and hooking them into my phone; there was something I needed to do.

Just didn't know quite what yet.

…

I flicked on the auditorium lights.

And by lights, I mean Mac's creation of Grid lights that wove in every color around the walls, the chairs, the light cycle on the stage, the steps, the sound booth behind the curtains, the curtains, my desk, the chairs we used in the show, the half of the super computer that wasn't downstairs under the stage-

everything lit up.

I stepped back, watching the back wall of the stage light up. We'd plastered it with inspiring quotes; I stared at the first one from a fan:

"Defending the broken is our mission.

Preserving the truth is our goal.

Helping others is our destiny.

But our purpose?

Our purpose is not to die in vain.

It is not to give up at the first obstacle you encounter.

It is to show the world that you can be better than it's standard.

It is to show even your worst enemies you care about even the likes of them.

It is to prove that because someone greater loves you, you can love others.

And above all, it is to make a difference using your God-given gifts.

It is to do the right thing, come what may."

-(and then there was the fan's name)

Now that was a good one, and a really long one. And then there was another one that was pretty good:

"Regardless, the thing that makes me excited is the knowledge that there is all sorts of magic just waiting for someone to fall in love with, waiting to be unearthed, and I have the immense privilege of digging it up." -Adam Young

I laughed at that one; there was a lot out there to discover- we'd learned that first hand. I mean, seriously, who would've thought of a guy coming through the computer from a digital world? (Actually, after the new ENCOM game's release… a digital world was overwhelmingly believable.) The whole thing about a guy coming through the computer was… well… not so much.

And then there were other quotes:

"I think that the way I'm advancing the Kingdom is just being a loyal friend, and a good example to nonbelievers and also Christians- just trying to not contradict myself, and get rid of all hypocrisy, and just to live for Christ…" -Cassie Bernall (She was killed in the Columbine school shooting after being questioned on what she believed…)

"Listen, we know there's a lot of darkness in this life, but in the end, light is gonna win. And we wanna be the light to people and just show them who the light of the world is..." -Kyle Kupecky (He was a member of Anthem Lights… pretty awesome band.)

And there were still more. But those were just a few.

I shivered; so this was where all the air conditioning wound up… not bad in here. Slightly chilly but- wait! Back on task! There was an idea coming… I knew it! I-

**"There were days when each hour was a war I fought to survive. There were nights full of nightmares, and I dreaded closing my eyes. There were skies that burst open with a downpour to drown me alive, but the world took a spark like a match in the dark, and the fire brought me to life…"**

I smiled. So the song was set on repeat.

But back on task… again!

Maybe there was a way… I smirked. There were some calls I needed to make in the morning…

* * *

"You… did WHAT?!"

I grinned at Knight's amazed expression as he nearly choked on his coffee two mornings later. He glanced at Mac and Ri- Aidan (man, I'll get his name right eventually!), who looked a little lost, Aidan more so than Mac. "You two catch that?" Knight asked, his shaking hands trying to sit down his cup of coffee.

McKian nodded. "I think so," he said thoughtfully. "But… who's gonna take care of this place?"

"Alex volunteered to. And-" before Knight could say what I knew he was gonna sooner or later "-we can just lock the Grid link out and he won't be able to get in."

Knight shrugged. "Sounds good. But…" his face went back the the expression of wonder and awe. "We… we're gonna-"

"Don't get starstruck, bright wonder," I joked, rolling my eyes mockingly. Actually, I was probably gonna be one of the most starstruck ones…

Why?

We had a tour coming up at the end of the month, a three month tour from September to just before Christmas… with lots of famous people that we'd kinda sorta worked with in the past; only this time, we'd be working far closer.

So… Renegades was going on tour…

I smirked behind my cup of orange juice before gulping it down. This was going to be big.

And amazing.

…

"Okay… you need to learn how to communicate… somehow…" Knight said as he stared at Aidan later that night. "Because you just nodding isn't enough."

Aidan just nodded at him; I hid behind the corner to keep from laughing.

Knight sighed. "Okay… um… so I think the only thing that you can really use is sign language. Lucky for you, I know it inside and out."

Now that was a new development. Knight… knew sign language? Stayed behind the corner, listening intently.

"Okay, we need to start with something basic…"

…

Two… hours… later…

I'd flipped the television on and off several times, trying to make it seem like I wasn't listening in; between the excitement from the coming tour and Knight trying to help Aidan, I was ready to bounce off the walls like I was on a sugar high.

"And then…"

I giggled as Aidan purred at whatever Knight had done.

Wait… Knight and Aidan would be able to communicate with each other… but not me and Mac… oh well. I'd just force Knight to teach us too, that way I knew what Aidan was trying to say.

I saw Mac peek around from the kitchen and I motioned for him to be quiet. He nodded after looking confused for a second and sat by me on the couch as I flicked the TV back on for… what was it?… the twelfth time? "Whatcha doin'?" he asked, smirking.

Oh, he could've only got that from Knight… "Listening in," I whispered back, adjusting the volume on the TV so Knight couldn't hear us.

"Not nice…" Mac grinned as I playfully punched him in the arm. "What are they doing?"

"Knight's teaching Aidan sign language."

Mac frowned. "But I thought Aidan already knew how to read road signs…"

I smiled. "No, I mean like this." I knew how to sign my name, and one word: shut up. So I signed my name instead.

McKian's eyes widened. "What… was that?"

"Sign language."

He shook his head and laughed softly so Knight and Aidan couldn't hear it. "I have no idea what you just did."

* * *

The night before the tour began…

and Mac and I were on the Grid.

I smiled as we spotted Beck and his friends walking down the street; they didn't see us, but that was okay. We'd be back soon enough; wait, twelve hours later was soon enough, right?

McKian grinned too. I felt his arm slip around my shoulders, and for once I didn't flinch. That made the feeling that much better. "I guess everything's working out for once."

"Hopefully for good," I replied, gazing up into his bright green eyes. I'd turned nineteen just two nights ago… maybe Mac and I would set a date later on to get married… maybe next year some time. After all, we were waiting for after that day for a… few things… which we were both willing to wait on.

His eyes ignited that bright green. I blushed as he pulled me close to him and leaned down to kiss me. That feeling… it never got old. Ever.

I was pretty sure it never would.

…

"So…"

Knight had an arm around Mac's shoulders; the other around Aidan's; Mac had his one around around Knight's shoulders as well, and the other around mine. I smiled up at him, then watched as Knight glanced back at the auditorium. "I never, in a million years, would've thought I'd be here two years ago."

My smile grew. "Neither did I," I said softly, leaning against Mac's shoulder, realizing this was all a dream. I'd always dreamed of a world where there was no pain and constant heartbreak when I was younger… and now… in the last (almost) five years, that dream had turned into a reality.

A reality I was happy with and wouldn't trade for anything.

Mac shook his head. "And I never thought I'd wind up here."

We all laughed; well, Aidan purred, grinning from ear to ear.

I stared at the tour bus we'd be living on for the next three months and then looked up at the cloudless noon sky. Maybe… maybe you really couldn't change the world… but maybe… just maybe… you could touch it. Heal some of it…

This tour was meant to reach out to anyone who was broken or beat, or sick of living. This tour was for the people who needed a helping hand or the encouraging words that no one else had given them. It was for those wanting to end it all, or for those resorting to causing themselves pain to attempt to break the cycle of pain they already had. It was for those who were wanting to make a difference. For those who were perfectly fine. For… everyone.

I glanced back at the auditorium, seeing the lights on the outside of the building pulse as they always did. Time to explore… huh?

J. D. and RAM peeked out of McKian's huge jeans pockets. He grinned. "Should we be heading out?"

Nodded. "Yep. It's time to see who else we can reach."

As we started up the stairs to the bus, I heard something and apparently the guys did as well. And it was LOUD!

**"Don't let the fire die…"**

I stared at Mac. "Was that you?" I asked, knowing that the music could've only, logically, come from me or him.

McKian shook his head. "Wasn't me."

Knight turned around and pointed at me. "Was it you?"

My turn to say no. "Wait… you don't think…"

Mac grinned. "He works in mysterious ways, you know."

I laughed at that. I'd said that plenty of times… and it was quite true.

Knight grinned. "Well, let the Big Guy do whatever He's doing and let's get going!"

"Okay. You drive."

Knight smirked. "We'll see if we make it there alive then."

We all laughed again and I sighed as I took in the sleek black and silver design inside, with lots of colorful Grid lights (thank you, Mac).

I smiled up at McKian again as his hand slipped into mine.

Time to see what lay ahead…

* * *

_-and, that's the end! :)_

_thanks, guys, for all the support and reviews. it all meant so much to me… thanks :)_

_(and, fyi, Kyle Kupecky isn't in Anthem Lights now, but he was. this series was kinda set back to start in 2008- and at this point in time it's 2010, so Kyle would still be in the band. the band is still amazing, though.)_

_lyrics from Owl City "Embers"_

_you guys are amazing! thanks again! :)_

_God bless! :)_


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